Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
3.5 suppression hearing and 3.6 hearing held
DAVENPORT—Michelle L. Hopkins, 47, who is charged with 10 counts of possession of depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct in the first degree and 15 counts of the same charge, but in the second degree, entered a not-guilty plea on all counts at an arraignment Monday, Dec. 6.
The court appearance also included a 3.5 suppression hearing and a 3.6 hearing. These hearings occur when police officers are questioned under oath by the prosecutor and defense attorney in regards to police evidence before a judge rules whether this evidence can be used in a criminal trial.
Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office deputy Kurt Cuzzetto and sergeant Jerad McLagan testified for both hearings, which occurred in succession Monday afternoon. Both officers were present and involved in the arrests of Hopkins and Scotty Maiden, who was sentenced to 75 months in prison in February after being found guilty of two counts of possession of depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct in the first degree and one count of the same charge in the second degree.
Cuzzetto took the stand first as prosecutor Nina Fisk played video on a thumb drive with body camera footage taken by the deputy Dec. 29, 2020, the day Hopkins and Maiden were arrested. The footage included the interview from the search warrant with Hopkins at her former apartment at 1311 Logan Street in Davenport.
Hopkins’ defense attorney, Victoria Iverson, argued that Hopkins is hard of hearing and nearly blind, making it difficult for her to know what she was agreeing to or what she was being asked during the interview.
Fisk countered that Hopkins answered “yes” when asked if she understood her Miranda rights and didn’t say in the footage that she was hard of hearing or had poor eyesight. Iverson responded by saying that the video’s audio made it hard to hear Hopkins’ replies to questions.
Presiding judge Dan B. Johnson ruled that the Miranda rights were correctly given and because Hopkins answered all questions in the footage and didn’t indicate she was hard of hearing, the thumb drive with the body camera footage can be submitted as an exhibit for trial.
The 3.6 hearing presented the search warrant for a separate apartment at 1311 Logan Street where a black iPhone containing minors engaged in sexual conduct that belonged to Hopkins and Maiden was retrieved. The apartment belonged to Nancy Collier.
Fisk argued that a search warrant wasn’t conducted at Collier’s apartment, because footage showed that Collier willingly allowed Cuzzetto into her apartment and pointed to the phone on her couch within eyesight of the doorway.
Iverson countered that the search warrant had to describe the place to be searched, which was just Hopkins’ apartment, and since the phone was in Collier’s apartment, the search warrant was illegal.
Fisk said Hopkins doesn’t have a right to override the permission Cuzzetto was given by Collier to enter her apartment.
Johnson said he needed to research the constitutional rights regarding the search warrant before making a ruling.
“On the surface, this seems like a pretty straightforward case, but I’m not so sure it is,” Johnson said.
Johnson said he’ll take a week to review the advisement and present a ruling on Tuesday, Dec. 14 at 10:30 a.m. in Hopkins’ next court appearance. He also said he’d take any additional argument that day before court adjourned.
Drew Lawson is the editor of the Davenport Times. He is a graduate of Eastern Washington University.
Reader Comments(0)